I'm on E-mail lists from several airlines for web specials. Got one from Amnerica West with $189 round trip Columbus to Vegas. These are usually very restrictive on available flights. On this offer you could only fly out Saturday evening. Return option were Monday or Tuesday night's redeye. I called my wife to see if she wanted to go. She said no but gave me the green light. Booked my flight. My mother died in May of this year so thought it might do my dad good to get away. Called to see if he could make it and booked one more ticket. The on-line seat mapper for the outbound flight showed only about 10 seats open. Couldn't find 2 together.
Checked Thrifty and was able to book an Intrepid for $19.49 per day on a 1 week notice!
Started looking at hotel offers. Had 3 free nights at MSS that ended 2 days before my arrival. Had another offer for 2 free nights that started the day I was leaving. I called them and they gave me $69 Saturday, $49 Sunday and free Monday using my offer. Dad wanted his own room, $99/$79. Didn't think this was bad, they allowed a Saturday arrival and we both used my room the last night since we were checking out around 9:30 PM.
Flight was on time leaving. Was able to get aisle/window in the same row with no one between us. We went way North to get around weather. Came in over St. George Utah. Got to the gate about 15 minutes late.
No checked bagage. Jumped on the Thrifty bus, walked up to the Blue Chip counter. Gave the guy my name, got dad added to the rental and were out in about 5 minutes. Got a white Intrepid SXT with 5,500 miles.
Wanted to start dad out with the full Vegas experience so took the tunnel/freeway to Las Vegas Blvd. WHAT A MISTAKE! It took us almost an hour to get downtown the traffic was so bad.
Checked into MSS and got one of my three requests for a room. I asked for a king bed, non-smoking, high floor, towards the front of the building. Got 2 beds, smoking, 3 rooms from the railroad. Guess that's what happens when you check in at midnight on a Saturday.
Played 3-card poker for a couple hours. One straight-flush made it a very profitable beginning.
Sunday morning dad chose the Sunday Brunch at MSS for breakfast. Asked for a comp in the pit and was told they couldn't help me, I opnly had 2 hours of play in. He did give me a buy one, get one free coupon. As always, their brunch was GREAT.
When dad was 16/17 he moved to Vegas in a 3-C camp working on building power lines from Vegas to Death Valley. He wanted to try and find the area where his camp was.
Got in the car and headed for Lake Meade. Went thru Boulder City then turned off and drove down to the marina. Noticed something kind of odd next door at the boat launch. Around here, the lakes have pretty steep launch ramps. When you back your vehicle down, the rear wheels may go back in the water a foot or two to get the trailer deep enough. These people were having to back in with water up to their door sill and all four wheels in the lake.
Came back to town and stopped at the outlet mall, I needed new tennis shoes. This still all confuses me. They've got walking shoes, running shoes, cross training shoes, and on and on. I didn't find a section with Just Dicking Around shoes so settled on some very comfortable cross training shoes. I sure that I don't have to do something kinky when I wear these.
Decided to head back to the motel for a nap before dinner. That sure didn't work. Started out at the long bar on Lee's Treasure Chest for 3 $20 scotches. Moved to 3-card poker where the scotch was much less expensive. No straight flushes but made some money.
Had reservations at Pasta Pirate for 8 people at 7 PM. Found out Dean no longer works there. All my friends found me at the poker table and we walked over the the Cal. Table wasn't ready. Had a 30 minutes wait followed by an excellent meal with good friends (It don't get much better than that).
Returned to MSS for a stab at a $1 DDB Progressive that was over $8,000. No luck. Back to 3-card poker. Between very little slep and way too much scotch, I was in bed to watch the late news then off to sleep.
Two comps for the breakfast buffet. Much smaller than brunch but still excellent including made-to-order omletes or eggs.
Looked a litle more in ernest for dad's camp area today. Out Las Vegas Blvd to Nellis. Dad finally called back to Ohio to a guy who was with him. The way he described it, I felt it was off Boulder Highway. Went back to town then worked our way out again. Think we got pretty close. He remembered the mountains behind him and about an hour walk into town.
Took dad back to MSS for a nap. I walkde over to Binoins in search of a Card Player magazine. They were out. Decided to look at the Orleans. They were out. Next to the Palms. They had 3x points for the holiday. NO magazine but had a real good run at Deuces Wild. Was upset that I kept hitting natural quads on a deuces machine until the deuces came up. Put over 1,000 points on my card and a couple hundred $ in my pocket. Left happy.
Gave most of my winnings back to the 3-cards poker table at MSS.
When I made my reservations with America West on-line, there was an offer of free miles for signing up with a travel offer for a free trial. One of the things you could do was print Entertainment coupons for city's across the nation. I printed off a buy one get one fre offer for the Great Moments Room at the Las Vegas Club. Dad and I had GREAT dinner there. Very nice, 'clubby' sort of room. Excellent service. I had one of their specials, mixed grill. Filet Mignon (10 oz?), a grilled jumbo shrimp, Grilled scallop, double lamb chop, pork tenderloin. Served with garlic mashed potatos and grilled vegetables. Included soup or salad. I had their house salad with was mixed greens, cubed chicken, chow mein noodles, onions, cherry tomatoes. All mixed table side with a peanut/soy dressing. All this was only about $25! I'd HIGHLY recommend this place.
Returned to MSS for another losing session at 3-cards poker. By now, the progressive at that DDB machine was well over $9,000. Blew thru my first $50 pretty quick. Decided to try one more. Got good play, was dealt quad jacks. Now I had some bullits. About ten minutes later I was dealt 10, Q,K,A of diamonds. Held the four cards, hit the deal button, and
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4 of clubs!
Got down to my $100 buy in and cashed out. Time to pick up dad and get to the airport. Car return was quick and painless.
America West had a HUGE line, but, there was a special line for flights to certain destinations. Columbus was on the list. Walked right to the counter, got another window/aisle. The row ahead of us was empty as people quit coming in so I encouraged dad to move. We both parked in the center seats as a few people made last minute shuffles and each ended up with our won row. As soon as the wheels were of the ground, I had the armrests up and was curled up. There was a big lightning show. Pilot said we were heading thru some weather and told the flight attendants to stay seated. We never hit anything bad. At least not that I felt.
Arrive home a few minutes early to a beautiful, foggy, rainy morning. Was able to get a couple hours sleep before having to come to the office.
Miscelaneous Ramblings:
* Unusually clear skies in Vegas. Very litle haze.
* New tower at Mandalay Bay is really coming along.
* I saw a monorail pulling out of Las Vegas Hilton.
*Saw a Ford Windstar Van with it's front end about 4 feet inside a 7-11.
* Vegas gas prices are about 25 cents higher than Columbus and 10 cents different from one part of town to another.
* MSS still has some of the friendliest staff in town.
* New outlet Mall near downtown was packed!
* I'm so happy that girls are comfortable dressing cool in the 100 degree heat.
Guess that's about it!
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